Contents:

1. Execution
2. Defining a session
3. Session Bookmarks
4. Preferences
5. Starting a session
6. Statistics
7. Stopping a session
8. Recording monitoring data
9. Using the monitor without GUI
10. Wrong behaviors and results (bugs)
11. Running the program in other directory
12. Reinstallation recommendations

1. Execution

a) In the command line type:

cd \vrtp\rtpMonitor
java org.web3d.vrtp.rtp.RtpMonitor

Using this call with no arguments the GUI version of the program will be executed. The following window is presented:

2. Defining a session

In the session box enter the session address/port/ttl as in the example below:

rtp://224.2.125.60:55690/127

where :

Multicast IP address: 224.2.128.60
RTP port: 55690
TTL : 127

As an option to writing the session address, it is possible to select a session bookmark. The program already comes with some pre-defined session bookmarks. Bookmarks can be added and deleted.

The option "Select" displays a window with the pre-defined session bookmarks. Click over the desised session to select it.

The option "Add" allows the insertion of a new session bookmark. This option is enabled only when a session has been started.  The session address is the session of the current session. The session name will be the bookmark name.
 

The option "delete" allows the deletion of a bookmark. A window with the existing bookmarks will be presented and the user can select the bookmark to be deleted and click the "Delete" button.

4. Preferences

Before starting to monitor a session, the user should set up the program preferences. The menu "Preferences" allows the verification and modification of the program preferences. Selecting Preferences -> Modify the following window will be presented:

The options are:

• Send RTCP packets checkbox: defines if the monitor will participate in the session, sending RTCP packets.
• Play incoming media checkbox: defines if the monitor will play the received streams (audio or video). For video, a new playing window will be created for each active participant stream. For audio, only one playing window will be created.
• Record statistics checkbox: defines if the monitor will record the session statistics in files.
• Record Interval textbox: the user can enter the interval between recorded data, in seconds (default = 30 sec).
• Presentation Interval textbox: the user can enter the interval between data updates on screen, in seconds ( default = 5 sec).
• Monitoring Period choicebox: allows the user to specify the duration of the monitoring session. After the time is over the program will exit automatically. The maximum allowed duration is one week (default = 1 hour).
• External viewer textbox: defines an external text editor that will be called to present the output files generated by the monitor ( default = MS Windows Wordpad ).

The selected preferences will be saved on file and will be available in the next time the program is executed.
 

5. Starting a session

After entering the session address and the desired option, the user can click on the start button to start a monitoring session. If the supplied session address is invalid or if any other problem in establishing a session occurs an error message will be displayed in the feedback text area.
 

6. Statistics

The program displays the following types of information about the session:

• Global statistics: general information about the whole session.
• Active Participants: the username of the participants actually sending data streams.
• Passive Participants: the username of the participants that do not send any stream.
• Stream: the stream that is currently being monitored. That stream can be changed in a session with multiple incoming streams by clicking in the "change" button and selecting another stream in the stream selection box.
• Feedback: that display area presents the RTCP feedback data related to the selected stream. Usually the participants in the session send feedback data about all streams.

7. Stopping a session

Clicking the "stop" button can stop a session. After stopping a session, the user is allowed to change the session address and preferences before starting monitoring again.
 

8. Recording monitoring data

A new subdirectory is created for each session address, with the following name:

session [IPaddress] port [port number]

Inside this subdirectory several files will be generated and updated during a recording session. They are:

• statisticsHeader.txt: contains the description of the fields being stored.
• statisticsLastFiveMinutes.txt: contains the last five minutes block of statistics.
• statisticsPreviousFiveMinutes.txt: contains the previous five minutes block of statistics.
• statisticsLastHour.txt: contains the last hour block of statistics.
• statisticsPreviousHour.txt: contains the previous hour block of statistics.
• statisticsDateMM-DD-YYYY: contains statistics taken in described date.
• statisticsLastReport.txt – contains the last single report.

The external viewer defined in the preferences will be called to present the output files. These options can be executed during a monitoring session. Below is an example of the Last five minutes file using MS Windows WordPad editor as an external viewer. The format of the data is stored in the file statisticsHeader.txt, also shown below.

Each line of data is preceded with a header indicator (D1, D2 or D3), which indicates the line of the statisticsHeader file that contains the description of the data being stored (H1, H2 or H3).
 

9. Using the monitor without GUI

The program can be executed without the GUI (no statistics are presented) by passing the session address and options data via the command line. The format is:

java org.web3d.vrtp.rtp.RtpMonitor sessionAddress [options]

-part : the monitor participates in the session (sends RTCP packets as a receiver in the session)

-play : the monitor play streams

-record : the monitor records statistics

-i nnn : nnn defines the recording interval in seconds (default 30s)

-e ppp : ppp defines the monitoring duration in hours (default: 168 hours = 1 week)

Action:  runs the program for monitoring the session in the IP address 224.120.67.46, port 64542, with TTL = 127. It does not participate in the session, but plays the incoming streams and records statistics on files. The recording interval will be 30 seconds and the monitoring duration will be 24 hours.

To stop the program press <Ctrl-C->

10. Wrong behaviors and results (bugs)

Several early bugs were related to JMF1.1 and were corrected in JMF2.0 Early Access. A new bug was observed in JMF 2.0 Early Access: the Cumulative Number of Packets Lost ( Packets Lost in the Feedback Area ) is returning wrong values after some time. This problem was reported to Sun's JMF-bugs list in 08-Jun-1999, but it is still present in JMF2.0 Beta.
 

11. Running the program in other directory

To run the program in another directory copy the files "bookmarks.txt" and "Header.txt" to the new directory. Then run rtpMonitor from this directory.

Example:

copy bookmarks.txt c:\Mydir
copy Header.txt c:\Mydir
cd \Mydir
java org.web3d.vrtp.rtp.RtpMonitor

12. Reinstallation recommendations

In order to continue using the previous bookmarks and preferences, the files "bookmark.txt" and "preferences.txt" in the directory "\vrtp\rtpMonitor" should be saved and restored after the new installation.

To reinstall the program it is recommended the deletion of the following directories:

    - \vrtp\javadoc\rtpMonitor
    - \vrtp\org\web3d\vrtp\rtp
    - \vrtp\rtpMonitor